Chapter 241

"Temple Master, Temple Master Shan requests an audience."

In the Jin Miao, there was a stone couch at the innermost part of the cave chamber, covered with a white tiger skin, and Tie Tie Po Feng was sitting on it. At this time, someone came to report.

Tie Tie Po Feng looked like a tall, strong man in his prime, with thick eyebrows, a broad face, short hair, and a fierce look on his face.

Hearing the report, the two walnut-sized silver balls in his hands stopped rotating, and he raised his eyebrows,

"Shan Xingwei?"

"Yes."

The person outside answered respectfully.

Tie Tie Po Feng gave a cold snort,

"What is it, does he want to persuade me to nominate him as this Mountain Master?"

With the rumors flying recently, Tie Tie Po Feng had naturally heard of them. He had figured it out; when they first seized the Earth Temple, this old monkey let all the benefits go out, so it turned out he was waiting here!

He had even investigated the source of the rumors. The Second Elder of the Water Temple said it first, and then the other elders of the Water and Wood temples, fearing they would fall behind, responded one after another, and the people of the Fire Temple naturally fanned the flames, so it became noisy.

Recently, the Gold and Earth temples had not responded, and people were already gossiping. They said that Temple Master Shan was so righteous, and the Jin Miao had gained huge benefits, yet they still wanted to compete with Temple Master Shan for the position of Mountain Master; they were truly ungrateful!

"He is just a hairy beast; letting him be a Temple Master is already the Master's great mercy. Now he still wants to set his sights on the position of Mountain Master; how can I agree to him?"

Tie Tie Po Feng cursed loudly, and the person reporting on the side didn't even dare to let out a breath.

"Enough, invite him in!"

Tie Tie Po Feng said. He still had to keep up appearances; if he really ignored him, that would be a falling out.

The reporter retreated, and not long after, Cheng Xinzhan entered.

"Brother Shan, you are not busy soothing the hearts of the people in the Water and Wood temples, so how do you have time to come here and sit with me today?"

Tie Tie Po Feng said with a hidden sting, sitting in his seat like a statue, not even getting up.

Cheng Xinzhan walked straight to Tie Tie Po Feng's side and sat down.

Tie Tie Po Feng didn't expect this mountain monkey to be so unceremonious, and the anger on his face could no longer be suppressed.

But the next moment, what Cheng Xinzhan said made him pale with shock.

"Brother, you don't have to guard against me; I don't have many years left to live."

"Ah!"

Tie Tie Po Feng looked over with an expression of disbelief.

Cheng Xinzhan smiled and nodded.

"Brother Shan, this, how can this be?"

"How else could it be? My lifespan is up. Brother, think about it; it's just that our Mount Tianqiao doesn't count this, but if you really calculate it, in our generation, I am the senior brother!"

Tie Tie Po Feng was shocked by this news and couldn't recover for a while, muttering randomly,

"Yes, yes."

Cheng Xinzhan was still smiling, but there was some loneliness in his smile,

"I, the Master often scolded me, I'm of beast origin! I wasted a lot of time in ignorance, and later when I embarked on the path of cultivation, I delayed too long as a loose cultivator outside. It wasn't until I blindly explored and refined to the Second Realm that I was led into the door by the Master, unlike you, who were raised by the Master's side from the beginning of cultivation.

"But there is one good thing about being of beast origin; I am a mountain demon, not a wild boar, so my own lifespan is not short. If I were human, I would have died long ago on this path.

"But now, it's about time. My Fourth Pill Tribulation is also coming. If I can't pass it, I'm gone. If I can pass it, I only have a few decades to live, and I probably won't be able to wait for the next pill tribulation.

"Speaking of this, Tian Xiue wasn't even born when I was in the Second Realm, but she crossed the Fourth Pill Tribulation before me. You say, isn't it infuriating? In the next life, I also want to be reincarnated as a human.

"Come, now that we are so close, look carefully at my face and see how many years I have left to live?"

Tie Tie Po Feng glanced over. He hadn't looked closely before, only remembering that this monkey's eyebrows and hair were snow-white. Looking closely today, he realized that the fine hair on this old monkey's face had turned white, his eyes were turbid, and the wrinkles and cracks on his face were uglier than the old tree bark outside. Indeed, this old thing was already here when he first entered the mountain, so he should be dead.

"So I must be the Mountain Master."

Cheng Xinzhan said, looking straight at Tie Tie Po Feng.

But before Tie Tie Po Feng could speak, he said again,

"After I become the Mountain Master, I will immediately announce you as the Deputy Mountain Master. Once I get the Fourth Realm Dharma passed down by the Master, I will immediately go into closed-door meditation. A few years later, my pill tribulation will come. At that time, I will try to break through to the Fourth Realm. If I die, you will be the Mountain Master."

Tie Tie Po Feng's eyes lit up.

Cheng Xinzhan took in Tie Tie Po Feng's expression, and he said again,

"During my closed-door meditation, you will be the Mountain Master. If I die breaking through, you will still be the Mountain Master. If I am truly lucky enough to break through, at that time, you will be the Mountain Master, and I will be the Supreme Elder, focusing on cultivation and no longer asking about the affairs of the mountain.

"And if Mount Tianqiao doesn't produce a Fourth Realm cultivator for a long time, it will be destroyed sooner or later. If the nest is overturned, how can the eggs remain intact? You should understand this truth. So for you, this is a matter with no downsides."

Tie Tie Po Feng listened to Cheng Xinzhan's words, remained silent for a long time, his eyes flickering.

Cheng Xinzhan didn't urge him, just waited quietly.

After a long while, Tie Tie Po Feng put on a smiling face and said slowly,

"You are the senior brother and should have inherited the position of Mountain Master, but..."

"As long as you are willing to help, I will announce you as the Deputy Mountain Master on the spot when everyone nominates me as the Mountain Master. If I don't do it, then before I officially receive the Mountain Master's seal, you can go back on your word at any time. Before I enter the Corpse Cave for closed-door meditation, I will announce in public that you are acting as the Mountain Master. If I don't, you can still go back on your word."

"It's a deal!"

————

A few days later, the Temple Masters of the Gold, Earth, Water, and Wood temples gathered in front of the Fire Temple cave, jointly nominating Fire Temple Master Shan Xingwei as the Mountain Master of Mount Tianqiao.

Shan Xingwei declined under the pretext of closed-door meditation, but the people of the four temples surrounded the cave entrance and refused to leave. Helpless, Shan Xingwei came out of the cave, willing to temporarily serve as Mountain Master, and announced on the spot that Jin Miao Master Tie Tie Po Feng would serve as Deputy Mountain Master, jointly governing Mount Tianqiao.

Everyone decided on the spot that as the Ghost Festival was approaching, Temple Master Shan Xingwei would hold the Mountain Master's seal on that day.

It was soon the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and the leaders of the five temples gathered at the Coffin-Standing Mountain in the center of Mount Tianqiao.

Coffin-Standing Mountain, just by the name, one knows the shape of the mountain. This was the residence of the Mountain Master of Mount Tianqiao, but no one had set foot here for nearly a hundred years.

Everyone arrived at the foot of Coffin-Standing Mountain, where there was a cave dwelling with the three characters "Corpse Cave" carved on it.

There was a stone door at the entrance of the cave, with many skulls and ghost faces carved on it. In the center of the stone door, there were six palm-sized grooves, which were exactly the wide-open mouths of six evil ghosts.

Everyone looked at each other, and then Tie Tie Po Feng was the first to take out his Jin Miao Master seal. The seal knob was a monster with nine faces and a tiger's body.

Subsequently, the new Temple Masters of the Water, Wood, and Earth temples also took out their respective seals. The knobs on them were a dragon girl who was half-human and half-bone, a tree man with many hands and heads, and a ghost mother with nine babies flying out of her belly.

Finally, Cheng Xinzhan also took out the Fire Temple Master's seal. The knob was a Drought Demon with many hands and eyes.

The seals of the five Temple Masters were not allowed to be taken out of the mountain. The Temple Master could die, but the seal could not be lost. This seal was the key to opening the treasuries and corpse cellars of each temple, and it also recorded the refining methods of each temple's temple-suppressing evil corpses.

Led by Cheng Xinzhan, he pressed the Fire Temple seal into one of the grooves. The other four also stepped forward one by one and placed their respective seals into them.

Immediately, the evil ghost patterns on this door seemed to come alive, wandering on the door and making wailing sounds like ghosts.

Then, everyone saw the door of the Corpse Cave slowly open.

Everyone looked at Cheng Xinzhan, especially Tie Tie Po Feng, whose gaze was the most eager.

Cheng Xinzhan nodded and said,

"Today I enter the Corpse Cave for closed-door meditation, seeking the opportunity to break through to the Fourth Realm. All affairs in the mountain will be managed by Tie Po Feng."

After saying this, he entered the cave without looking back.

Hearing this, Tie Tie Po Feng naturally showed a look of joy. The successor Temple Master of the Fire Temple, who had been designated by Cheng Xinzhan—the one who had originally brought Cheng Xinzhan into Mount Tianqiao—had a look of worry on his face.

The previous Mountain Master had also said he was going into closed-door meditation—and ended up really dying in this cave. Everyone only realized it when a huge amount of spiritual power dissipated from under this Coffin-Standing Mountain.

But fortunately, this time, Mountain Master Shan knew to designate a Deputy Mountain Master to act on his behalf before going into meditation, otherwise, if there was a mistake, it would be another hundred-year-old muddled account.

As for the people of the Water and Wood temples, their faces changed drastically. They had been jumping up and down these days to support you as Mountain Master, and now that you have become Mountain Master, why are you patting your butt and going into meditation? And Tie Tie Po Feng, whom they had been cold-shouldering, was actually going to exercise the power of the Mountain Master?

However, Cheng Xinzhan ignored what the people behind him were thinking. After he entered the cave, the stone door closed again, and he could no longer hear the sounds outside.

This Mountain Master's cave dwelling was no different from the Temple Masters', with the entrance on the ground, but the cave dwelling went deep underground. After walking a few steps, a hole appeared. Cheng Xinzhan jumped down and fell for a while before touching the ground again.

The cave chamber below was very large, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, as if a large mountain had been hollowed out.

Cold air mixed with rotten sandalwood incense rushed toward him, and Cheng Xinzhan frowned, immediately releasing Wu Qingbo.

He looked up, and the hundred-foot-high dome was covered with blue-gray stalactites hanging down, which couldn't help but remind Cheng Xinzhan of the strangely long hands growing on the Wood Demon.

These stalactites emitted a miserable green light, illuminating this cave as if it were the underworld.

And the hole he came down from was just a small black dot on the dome.

He looked around again, and the stone walls of the cave were densely chiseled with Buddha caves. The Buddha images in the caves, however, were gloomy and strange corpse-forest images—some were half-skeletons, some had many hands and eyes, some had broken chests and open stomachs, and snakes and rats were moving in and out of the empty eye sockets of those Buddha statues.

And at the bottom of the cave, where Cheng Xinzhan stood, was a temple complex.

The temple was not in the style of the Central Plains Zen sect; prayer flags were hung everywhere, and in front of each main hall, Vajra skeletons served as guardian door gods, with human bones as beams and human skin as tiles, gloomy and strange.

Each hall enshrined Buddha statues filled with demonic energy, and from time to time, treasure light flickered. It seemed that there were many treasures hidden here.

However, he didn't stop for a moment, walking straight to the most central and magnificent temple in the complex, with the plaque "Dazhao Treasure Hall" written on it.

The hall enshrined a rotten-bone Buddha riding on the back of a walking corpse, with the skull exposed on its head, and a golden crown embedded on the top of the skull.

And in front of this strange Buddha statue, there was a pile of clothes on the ground.

Cheng Xinzhan recognized that this was the Dharma robe of the previous Mountain Master.

He stepped forward a few steps and lifted the clothes, dust rising, revealing some treasures underneath.

The previous Mountain Master had passed away, so the Golden Core was definitely gone, but there were still many personal magic treasures left behind. Precious magic treasures were definitely kept in the apertures to be nurtured, so they all fell off after death. As for the things in the cave stones, Cheng Xinzhan was too lazy to break the seals to find them.

He rummaged through them, and they were all things like corpse banners and corpse bells. There were no natural treasures like the red-skinned gourd, so he was naturally uninterested and collected them all at once, leaving only a seal and a corpse-nurturing basket.

The seal felt cold in his hand. The knob was the same as the Buddha statue enshrined in this hall, in the shape of a Buddha riding a corpse.

This was the Mountain Master's seal of Mount Tianqiao, which could open the largest treasury and corpse cellar in Mount Tianqiao, and could also be used to bypass the five Temple Masters and directly control the mountain-protecting array.

This was what Cheng Xinzhan had been planning for a long time to obtain.

The mountain-protecting array of Mount Tianqiao was closely related to the Xiangxi mountain range, the earth veins, and the two water veins of the Yuan River and the Wu River. It was a unique corpse-nurturing pattern in the world, called the "Yin Dragon Entwining Mountain Obscuring Sun Absolute Yang Array."

However, while nurturing corpses, this array, passed down from ancient Western Buddhism, had been reinforced layer by layer over thousands of years. Moreover, Mount Tianqiao had repeatedly had Fourth Realm Mountain Masters, and after generations of reinforcement by Fourth Realm great cultivators, this array had long since become the premier mountain-protecting array in Xiangxi and even the entire Wuling region, providing thousands of years of protection for Mount Tianqiao, this demonic den.

In comparison, the Soul-Lost Stream did not have such a foundation, or rather, Mount Longhu did not want to spend great effort to support such a large sect. They only wanted a force to scrape up wandering souls; if it was destroyed, they could just rebuild it, which didn't take much effort.

When this group of ancient Buddhist remnants plunged into Xiangxi, the entire Wuling region was considered by the righteous path to be a barren land with no people, and no one cared about it. But now, thousands of years later, when loose cultivators gathered in the Wuling mountain area, forming a different kind of prosperity, Mount Tianqiao had become a tough nut to crack.

If one wanted to forcibly attack Mount Tianqiao, it would be impossible to break without a Fifth Realm cultivator. And even if the array of Mount Tianqiao was broken, the mountains and rivers within hundreds of miles with Mount Tianqiao as the core would all be destroyed, especially since Mount Tianqiao was adjacent to a major water vein like the Yuan River that ran through the entire region.

No Fifth Realm cultivator was willing to bear such consequences.

And in fact, no Fifth Realm cultivator had such time.

What were the Fifth Realm cultivators doing?

Practicing Dharma, creating scriptures, refining treasures, seeking the opportunity to become immortals, even talking to immortals in heaven, conveying the will of immortals, and even maintaining the operation of a sect and the continuation of the Dharma lineage. Even if they emphasized eliminating demons and defending the Dao, their eyes were all on Fifth Realm great demons.

How could they have time to cast their eyes here?

Could a Fourth Realm cultivator break this situation?

They could too.

Cheng Xinzhan had walked this path by passing off fish eyes as pearls, borrowing a corpse to return the soul, sowing discord, driving tigers to swallow wolves, diverting trouble, crossing the river and tearing down the bridge, and dividing and winning over. It was not easy, and both temperament and Daoist arts were indispensable. However, the thing this world lacked the least was geniuses. If he, a Third Realm cultivator, could do it, there must be someone in the Fourth Realm Xuanmen who could do it too.

But were the Fourth Realm cultivators not busy?

They were busy too.

Crossing wind disasters, fighting inner demons, realizing the mysteries of the Dao, nurturing the Nascent Soul, seeking the opportunity to harmonize with the Dao, and assisting in managing a lineage's heritage.

Eliminating demons?

Naturally, they did. The Haoran, Zhengyi, Chongyang, and Xuantian alliances all had Fourth Realm cultivators sitting in town. Previously, the siege of West Kunlun was presided over by Jian Bingru of the Fourth Realm. It was said that not long ago, Nengyue Xuan of Juqu Mountain also had a great battle with Wu Lao of the Red Corpse on the sea.

They naturally had their own opponents.

There were some things in this world that should be done by the Fifth Realm, some by the Fourth Realm, and some by the Third, Second, or even First Realm. There were also some things that were very troublesome; they could not be called a serious threat to the heart and abdomen, but they could not be regarded as a minor skin disease. It seemed that those who had the heart were powerless, and those who had the power had scruples, so it was not appropriate for anyone to do it.

This kind of thing was not easy to do, but someone had to do it.

That was why Cheng Xinzhan was here today.

(End of chapter)